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Aishwarya calls off French Awards

Following the serial bomb blasts in Mumbai, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan asked the French Government to postpone the award ceremony scheduled to take place in the capital yesterday. The Bollywood actress was to receive the Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters (Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres) from the French government.

The award ceremony was cancelled at the last minute. Aishwarya arrived with Abhishek along with Jerome Bonnafont, the French ambassador to India and Farooq Abdullah.

Bonnafont expressed his condolence and condemnation to the victims and said that respecting the sentiments of the people of India he had been decided to postpone the ceremony to a later date.

Aishwarya said, "We are very shocked and saddened by this incident... And keeping in mind what's happened, we didn't deem it prudent to celebrate. My family and I felt it would be prudent to request that the ceremony be postponed, and we thank the French government for understanding our sentiments in the current situation."